So, we were chatting, out of hours, as you do, and two of our writers, Steve Boxer and Chris Burke, had quite opposing views on which was the best football franchise. Chris was totally into Pro Evo Soccer and Steve was pinning his colours to the FIFA side of things. Here we let them explain why they think their favourite respective title is the best. First with the ball is Chris Burke on Pro Evolution Soccer. Hereeeeee’s Chris.
Pro Evolution Soccer is the best footie game series ever. Fact. And the PS3’s power means that Konami’s latest game, PES 2008, is an absolute belter. Its beautiful, super-sharp graphics, detailed likenesses, smooth movement and realistic animations and lighting effects make this as close to watching the real thing as you can get – and of course you’re controlling the action. The ball physics are just one of the many, many things Konami have improved (none of that cannoning-off your shins that went on in previous versions), and ball control now is pin-point accurate.
It’s not the easiest game to master, but it is very easy to get started – and the tricks and techniques you’ll master are intuitive and will become second instinct. There’s nothing prescribed about the way Pro Evo plays either - it’s one hundred per cent down to you. Mad skills are there to be shown off of course, but as in reality Sunderland players can’t convincingly pull off the Cruyff turn, whereas Cristiano Ronaldo can do his step-overs and shimmys and Ronaldinho can still curl in a pin-point free-kick over a flapping keeper.
Those familiar with previous versions on PS2 will be relieved that scoring is a little easier - though it still takes a steady hand and a focused head to bury it in the back of the bag. The keepers on this version don’t feel unbeatable. In previous versions, for example, a loose ball in the box was always collected by keeps. Not so now, and you can shove him a bit and put him off. And, for the less gentlemanly player, you now have the option to pull shirts, use an illicit arm, and dive. In possession, you can really dig in and shield the ball – but in tackling, you can get your foot in and needle for the ball too. You can do through-balls from throw-ins, and the formations you set before the match are accurately stuck to by your teams.
The replay system is comprehensive, and the game now replays all decent goal attempts, even those that come off the bar and back into play. Only two Premiership teams are licensed, sadly, Newcastle and Spurs – fully licensed teams and kits are something that its rival Fifa 08 can boast over Pro Evo. But in my opinion that’s the only thing. And ask yourselves, do you really care that Leyton Orient’s kit has those little white braces down the sides of the shirt? In any case, it’s part of PES’s charm that a handful of players aren’t licensed and you end up with ‘Van Donghorse’ upfront for ‘London’. Commentary-wise, thankfully Trevor Brooking’s been sidelined for PES 2008, and instead they’ve roped in John Champion and Mark Lawrenson. Which is good enough for me.
But really all that’s just icing. Forget about the merchandising and the endorsements, this time it really is about the football. Pro Evo is a beautiful game. It plays instinctively and realistically, mixing the fun of arcade-style play with football accuracy, and in multiplayer it’s going to rock the PSN. Fifa may be the only choice for the footie nerd – the kind of guy who will watch any game, from any league, including women’s football, and pores over Opta stats – but the only choice for the football-loving gamer has got be Pro Evo. PES is about having a good laugh playing it with your mates – for that, all you need is a really good football game. And believe me, this is it.
So that was Chris Burke singing the praises of PES, but here’s Steve Boxer on a counter attack, dribbling through midfield and lining up a curler for the top corner in support of the FIFA series.
I am a fan of both Tottenham Hotspur and EA Sports’ FIFA series of football games, and you get pretty much the same experience when you support either – both are once-great footballing institutions which have become inferior in recent years. I used to play FIFA obsessively in the days when it was on the original PlayStation – but sadly, it went into apparently terminal decline after FIFA 2000. A period which saw the rise of Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer.
Last year, EA Sports decided a drastic approach was required, so it ripped out FIFA’s innards and started again from scratch. The resulting FIFA 07 was a half-finished mess, but EA Sports’ endeavours, so dubious at the time, have now been vindicated by FIFA 08, which is the finest FIFA since FIFA 2000 and more than capable of giving PES a run for its money (particularly in a year in which it has merely been lightly tweaked).
Even when everybody agreed that PES was far superior to FIFA, I could never get into Konami’s football game. The biggest stumbling block was shooting: hold the square button down for more than a quarter of a picosecond, and the ball would balloon over the bar. Or if you held it down for less than an eighth of a picosecond, it would (and still does) dribble embarrassingly in the vague direction of the goal. I’m a Tottenham fan, which means I’m not interested in games full of intricate passing movements which end up as 0-0 draws. And that was all that PES ever offered.
Plus there was PES’s controls, which reverse the buttons governing lob-passing and shooting in comparison with FIFA, the need to fiddle around interminably with pre-game substitutions and play styles if you ever wanted to beat anybody and the simple fact that I can’t play through PES in control of Tottenham Hotspur, because it hasn’t licensed any of the Premier League clubs.
But what of FIFA 08? Whatever PES’s legendary Sea Bass might say, FIFA 08 is the only custom-designed next-gen football game (whether on PS3 or Xbox 360). So it makes good use of the PS3’s number-crunching capabilities, constantly making decisions about which direction off-the-ball players should run in and moving your player according to the relationship between his feet and the ball, and the direction in which he is being moved, rather than merely running stock animations in response to button-presses. This high-tech behind-the-scenes trickery brings about two things in which PES previously trounced FIFA: passing is ultra-controllable and very slick, and your players actually move where you want them to. No longer do central defenders charge off towards the half-way line when confronted by a dribbling attacker. You can even hit the left bumper to tell players to go off on a run – so at last, the through-ball button has a use.
In FIFA 08, shooting is a bit more PES-like than before, which is a shame, but is still vastly more forgiving and hugely superior. And – shock, horror, you PES fans – it actually has some new features. The most controversial being a new dribbling system, which you trigger by holding L2, and which lets you manoeuvre the ball around using the right stick. The idea is that by tapping the right stick in a sequence of different directions, you build up a series of moves that build up to a coherent trick. Or, if you press R1 and get the timing right, you can perform keepy-uppies. This system requires a lot of practice, and is a tad fiddly in the cut-and-thrust of a game, so it’s not a complete success. And you will need to use it to get round players if you play the single-player game in Professional or Legendary modes.
But the best new feature – and one which PES will surely copy in future – is called Be A Pro. This lets you control just one player in your favourite team, and rates you according to things like pass completion, receiving the ball when you ask for it (by pressing X), shooting and tackling. Combined with a down-the-pitch view, it really does give you the feeling that you’re controlling your favourite player, and that view also makes the new trick mode much more usable. Before long, you should be able to play five-a-side with a bunch of your mates over the PlayStation Network, with each one controlling a single player, and EA Sports eventually wants to expand that to allow 11-a-side games. Which will spark a true revolution in football gaming.
In terms of general polish, the graphics are superb, every team you can imagine is present (and with the correct playing staff down to the youth teams) and even the commentary team do sometimes get things right (although they also often make embarrassing gaffes). You can play through an entire Premiership season (opting to let the computer play the games for you, if you want, although why you would is beyond us), and you can create your own tournaments. If the real-life footballing experience is what you crave, then FIFA 08 is best.
It isn’t perfect – one of FIFA’s best aspects was that you could crank up the game’s speed to approximate the Premiership style, but FIFA 08 has dropped this, so now it’s played at a pace which is almost as funereal as that of PES. It appears that all those years of playing second fiddle to PES have caused EA Sports to bottle it in certain areas. But with this year’s iteration, FIFA has rediscovered its identity, and much of its soul. So hopefully, next year will see its designers removing those few remaining traces of an inferiority complex.
Of course if we had the PES demo we could have compared it ourselves with the FIFA demo. But looking around the ‘net it looks like we ain’t getting it now at all. Full stop. Nothing. Nadda.
And when they say ‘rock for the PSN’ - will that be with comms ala rock, or no comms ala cock?
Comment by Mick — Oct 10, 2007 @ 4:31 pm
Sweaty men hugging? Never been my type of thing. Pass on both of them.
Comment by zetsurin — Oct 10, 2007 @ 4:32 pm
Played both, Pro Evo is the one for me it rules by far
Comment by Akhtar — Oct 10, 2007 @ 4:32 pm
Don’t suppose you played it over the interweb did you? Did have comms? Yes or No?
Comment by Mick — Oct 10, 2007 @ 4:35 pm
PES
Comment by Just one word — Oct 10, 2007 @ 4:37 pm
Joy! Football stuff *acts casual like he knows what he’s on about*
Comment by JohnSketch — Oct 10, 2007 @ 4:40 pm
PES is for the connoisseur, Fifa is for the Hack
.
Comment by Savage — Oct 10, 2007 @ 4:48 pm
why have you called it soccer???? its football and this is a uk site so you should know better that we dont call it soccer!! even though you’ve mentioned football loads of times in the actual article
Comment by James — Oct 10, 2007 @ 5:01 pm
Ughhhhh… PES is better. Anywayz… where the hell is our demo of it!????
Comment by snake — Oct 10, 2007 @ 5:03 pm
Chris: “Only two Premiership teams are licensed, sadly, Newcastle and Spurs ”
Steve: “…and the simple fact that I can’t play through PES in control of Tottenham Hotspur, because it hasn’t licensed any of the Premier League clubs”
So who’s right? lol
If Chris is right, maybe he should tell Steve - he may warm to PES!!!
Comment by Apnomis — Oct 10, 2007 @ 5:03 pm
Of course if we had the PES demo we could have compared it ourselves with the FIFA demo. But looking around the ‘net it looks like we ain’t getting it now at all. Full stop. Nothing. Nadda.
>:(
Comment by .ram — Oct 10, 2007 @ 5:15 pm
Haven’t seen a good point/counterpoint style article in a while, good job.
Comment by tears of ash — Oct 10, 2007 @ 5:19 pm
“why have you called it soccer???? its football and this is a uk site so you should know better that we dont call it soccer!! even though you’ve mentioned football loads of times in the actual article”
Probably because it’s not called PEF.
Comment by zetsurin — Oct 10, 2007 @ 5:22 pm
To echo James says, I sincerely hope you’ve used the word “soccer” just because you felt forced to by PES’s name and not because this site is actually written by (shudder) folk who’s idea of football involves a “touchdown” (after the commercial break, of course).
Comment by Adam J — Oct 10, 2007 @ 5:25 pm
Was in Canada a while back - they actually stopped the hockey match just for commercial breaks
Soirry for the off-topicness
Comment by JohnSketch — Oct 10, 2007 @ 5:36 pm
still the problem which annoyed me until the last PES/ISS versions if when a player was “bumped” of the ball,you couldn’t control him for a “quick moment”
something thank god FIFA never had any problems with..
especially the current FIFA 08 “road to glory” for a single player instead of managing a full team is a nice addition which is not in pes.
currently looking at next gen (or at least at the new additions) FiFA is 2-0 up on Pes.
but without a demo we could compare them ourselves
Comment by Darkie — Oct 10, 2007 @ 5:38 pm
I like the new Fifa 08 on the Ps3 loads better than o7 was on the 360.
I haven´t played a Pes game for donkey´s years now, but i think i might give it a try. Now that they have the greatst club on the earth in it….wait….wait… 3-2-1 Newcastle United
Comment by GeordieNinja — Oct 10, 2007 @ 6:11 pm
Where is the PES 2008 Demo?
Comment by AliC — Oct 10, 2007 @ 6:31 pm
If you’ve ever played football you’d know that when you pick up the controller and play these games, fifa is the farther from the joys and rush of playing out in the field, but it is the closer of the two for atmosphere and licenses. So your choices are PES: play FIFA 08: be played. KOMRAD OUT.
Comment by Komrad — Oct 10, 2007 @ 6:54 pm
Rather interesting matter but it woul be easier for us to judge if Sony would put the PES-Demo online just like rivals Microsoft did!!!!!
You can download PES 2008 for the 360 but unfortunately Sony does no seem to care. It’s a pity as it was the Playstation who gave this iconic status to PES!
I think that a demo of both FIFA and PES would be helpful and a real plus (at last)!
For as like other I’ve spend my hard earned money into a PS3 in April and am still waiting for a game to blow my mind away!
Now the PS3 price has dropped but theres still are no PS3 games capable to raise to the test!
Saudações leoninas
Mindo
Comment by Mindo — Oct 10, 2007 @ 6:55 pm
Do they even use their feet in American “football” ?
XD
Comment by tears of ash — Oct 10, 2007 @ 7:03 pm
I dont care. PES is the best game, ever made.
Its one of the few games that i purchase on launch date, then keep for till the sequel. Very few games keep me occupied like that.
@ Chris: You’ve clearly played PES 2008, can you give us some more info about its multiplayer? I know its has the usual You against a Mate one. But does it have Online? You say its going to rock PSN, so i guess you mean it has Online. Can you clarify?
Eagerly awaiting the launch,
Reza
Comment by Reza — Oct 10, 2007 @ 7:42 pm
“I am a fan of both Tottenham Hotspur and EA Sports’ FIFA series of football games, and you get pretty much the same experience when you support either – both are once-great footballing institutions”
\o/ ???
Oh yes tottenham have been churning out football games for years. You see Martin Jol every tuesday de-bugging and play testing Spurs 08. WTF guys?
Comment by stephenb — Oct 10, 2007 @ 9:17 pm
we need just a demo of pes2008 sony.. it’s really funny that they will anounce ps3-package with pes2008 in there, but they do not add the ps3-demo of this game on the psn network.. look in the internet, as the pc-demo arrived of 2008, all download-webserver are going out of control.. everyone want’s to play the ps3 pes2008-demo.. sony is stupid when they do not see or remark this!!
Comment by pes — Oct 10, 2007 @ 9:27 pm
I Still don`t feel too sure about FIFA so I`m sticking with PES2008.
FIFA is improvingand PES needs to do the same, and when you compare both graphically, damn FIFA kicks PES like mad.
Comment by GabranthPT — Oct 10, 2007 @ 10:02 pm
‘But the best new feature – and one which PES will surely copy in future – is called Be A Pro. This lets you control just one player in your favourite team, and rates you according to things like pass completion’
Pro Evo has had a ‘Be a Pro Mode’ since Pro evo three with the fixed Cursor option…..and with the idividual player stats that are on offer….Fifa copied this feature from Pro bit like everything else thats good in fifa
Comment by Jason Pendlebury — Oct 10, 2007 @ 10:05 pm
I even can´t download the FIFA demo from the Austrian store…
Comment by Guenther — Oct 10, 2007 @ 11:21 pm
I Like Cheese
Comment by Martin — Oct 10, 2007 @ 11:54 pm
so am i right in thinking that after we paid loads more for ps3 than US and Japan, didn’t get a choice of the 20Gb version and were assured there wouldn’t be a price cut, early adopters are getting nothing?
Comment by gobucks — Oct 11, 2007 @ 1:14 am
i’ve played the fifa 08 DEMO and pro evolution 2007 still kicks its arse. the best way i can think of describing the difference is that fifa allows you to run smoothly in circles, while on pro evo you have to do side steps and run and dribble more realistically.
Comment by Lean_go — Oct 11, 2007 @ 1:51 am
‘But the best new feature – and one which PES will surely copy in future – is called Be A Pro. This lets you control just one player in your favourite team, and rates you according to things like pass completion’
Actually PES had this feature even before FIFA, it’s just called Fantasista, check it up.
Comment by anonymous — Oct 11, 2007 @ 6:57 am
PES is now the arcadier of the two and FIFA is the one closer to being an actuall simulation.
5v5 online cant wait.
Comment by Sacks — Oct 11, 2007 @ 7:03 am
ok, so PES is lacking in lisenced teams?
in previous version we had an importable file that we could download from some enthusiastic individual on the web and give us up-to-the-second player and team info.
anyone know if there is such an option on PS3 PES?
Shove a file on a USB stick would be nice
Comment by d33p — Oct 11, 2007 @ 8:53 am
The main thing that FIFA fans are pointing out is the licences… well sorry FIFA fans but with one goooood OPTION FILE and this one so called advantage goes BYE BYE hehehehe!!!
PES forever!!!!
Comment by Zoran — Oct 11, 2007 @ 8:58 am
I dunno, after international soccer, things just went downhill
I had a go of whatever soccer game demo was on the psn recently and unfortunately the realism was just too high … soccer is a terribly dull game when you’re not admiring the skills of a top team in a tense atmosphere.
Comment by MPZ — Oct 11, 2007 @ 9:03 am
I have played Fifa 08 Demo on my PS3 and I need agree is much better them I expect, but I still prefer play my PES2007 (PS2) over Fifa 08. I agree to Fifa has better graphics and more license team, but I will never change this over the PES gameplay. If the price for better graphic is the lost of gameplay I still with Konami choice.
Comment by Macedo — Oct 11, 2007 @ 9:08 am
I can play FIFA for about 3 games , after that it becomes BOOOORINGGG!! A PES game i can play all day!! And the main thing about graphics … on wide camera that i play you can tell wich player has the ball by the way he runs , shape of his body…etc . On FIFA they are all the same …fat…slow ….and the same height!!!
Comment by Zoran — Oct 11, 2007 @ 9:23 am
Haha, minutes after this new item was uploaded, I was going to post a mild rant about your use of the term Soccer Wars on this, a UK/European site. However, I decided against it, but I see others didn’t. Well done to them, and well done to you for changing it. Now if only the game makers can take heed for the future.
Comment by Lee Richards — Oct 11, 2007 @ 10:26 am
If only we had a demo from PES 2008…. is there any reason why we wont get a demo??
Anyway, fifa is crap and will always be crap.
Comment by Sota — Oct 11, 2007 @ 11:06 am
…it’s not even worth arguing about. Pro Evolution will never be bettered by the FIFA franchise…I don’t think Fifa has been any good since FIFA 95 ON SEGA MEGA-DRIVE! So, going on 13 years in the darkness…poor show.
Comment by PES Legend — Oct 11, 2007 @ 11:17 am
I can’t help feeling that 90% of the opinions here have been leveled while including experience with previous incarnations of the game and not after direct comparison between the two new titles, even the original 3 speech review is guilty of that to an extent.
Myself and a group of friends have gathered weekly to play footie games on a console for the last 7 or 8 years. ( has it been that long! scary ) We have always at the emergence of each game hired them both and reviewed them with a view to deciding which one we are going to use for the next year.
In recent years the hands down winner was PES and I think there is a general consensus elsewhere in the world that agrees with that.
In recent weeks we have tried the Fifa08 demo on the PS3 and arranged a shot of the PES demo on *cough* xbox *cough* as the PES demo isn’t available on PS-Store.
There is a general opinion from within our group that, despite FIFA using R2 for run which is pants, the FIFA game is a much better presented and executed football game. Further to this it’s obvious that many of the improvements are due to major move to emulate PES’s playability, and yet strangely the latest incarnation of PES seems to have slightly lost the way it delivered it’s gaming experience.
For our lot, without any previous gaming prejudice and purely for the game experience, we’re going with FIFA this year.
Comment by SharkyUK — Oct 11, 2007 @ 12:31 pm
@ Reza (and after quizing Chris) - ‘Offline it will have up to 4-player. It definitely does have online, but the Konami PR is away till Monday so I can’t confirm how many can play.’ Hope thats o.k. TS.
Comment by Three Speech — Oct 11, 2007 @ 1:59 pm
i played both demos and pes spits on fifa then points and laughs
Comment by jamie grant — Oct 11, 2007 @ 2:14 pm
pes 2008 demo on PSNetwork, where are you? Sigh…
Comment by theluke — Oct 11, 2007 @ 3:35 pm
Any updates today? Or will it be a BIG BANG Friday?
Comment by Mick — Oct 11, 2007 @ 4:00 pm
And where is the demo on PSN in Europe? Nowhere! I feel let down by Sony and wish I had never sold my Xbox 360. Get yer finger out lads.
Comment by Jugy — Oct 11, 2007 @ 4:12 pm
Pfft, Sensible World of Soccer 2007 will be the best footie game out this year! (if it ever comes out! Was due in August).
Comment by Lee Swain — Oct 11, 2007 @ 8:11 pm
Fifa just includes features that pes included long ago, such as the control one player on the pitch. and i cant actually be assed to name anything else…
Comment by Adam Morgan — Oct 11, 2007 @ 8:31 pm
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